Empowering Education

1. “People are naturally curious. They are born listeners. Education can either develop or stille their inclination to ask why and to learn. A curriculum that avoids questioning school and society is not as, is commonly supposed, politically neutral.

I feel that asking questions is the best way to learn. If you are learning something and you are confused how will you ever completely understand it and store it in your brain if you do not ask questions. If a teacher has a curriculum that completely avoids asking questions than I believe that a student can never fully understand the topic or subject. I think that whatever the activity or project is that is being taught should always have time for questions, even the simpliest activities. You never know if a student is having difficulty unless you give them that opportunity to ask questions.

2. “In making these choices, many teachers are unhappy with the limits of the traditional curriculum and do what they can to teach creatively and critically. Whether they deviate from of follow the official syllabus, teachers make numerous decisions-themes, texts, tests, seating arrangements, rules for speaking in class, grading systems, learning process, and so on.”

This quote is very interesting to me because I guess I never realized how many decisions teachers actually make. I feel that it is important for a teacher to really spend time figuring out how she/he is going to teach their class. What books they want to use and so on. I think that a teacher that just goes by the book and really does not care what they are teaching and if the students are leaning anything is not a very good teacher. I feel that it is also important for teachers to try to make it interesting for their students; there is nothing worse than boring activities

3. “People begin life as motivated learners, not passive beings. Children naturally join the world around them. They learn by interacting by experimenting, and by using play to internalize the meaning of words and experience. Language intrigues children: they have needs they want met; they busy the older people in their lives with questions and requests for show me, tell me.”

Students and young children learn by asking questions like I stated in the second quote, but they also learn by experimenting and working with others. It is important for any student at a young age to interact with their peers and work through problems together. And not just school work but real life stuff too. Young children are full of questions and they look for the older one to help them such as their parents, teachers etc. it is our duty to help them and do the best we can to give them the right response.

1.“Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full, rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities. (Kingsley, 1996, p. 6)”

I absolutely love this quote. It shows that just because a person is disabled in anyway does not mean that they should be limited. By limiting people, you are showing them that they cannot do something; this can only hurt the person in the long run. It shows them that they are different. Why can they do it and I can’t? Judgment is a very big part of the problem. If someone has a disability and they feel as though they are being judged it will only discourage them to continue. No one wants to be judged before they actually do something. Who should be the one to tell someone they can’t? The answer is no one.

2. “So we must learn to work with others, and this holds true whether we ultimately are destined to lead a multinational computer Software firm, inspire a civil rights movement, raise caring children, bag groceries, or chat and feed squirrels with an old man on a park bench. We have got to learn to get along as individuals and as citizens.”

I think this quote really says a lot. It is not all about being with those that you feel comfortable with or who is most like you we all must learn to get along with everybody. Everybody is different in their own way, but different does not mean bad, or worse it just means different. People with disabilities and people without disabilities should get along just like people that have different backgrounds then each other, or different skin color. Our ability does not define who we are, it is merly a part of us, what shows in the outside. It’s what is on this inside that counts, what we can offer to others.

3. “He and fellow educators have substantiated this vision with detailed accounts of actual educational arenas where all students are welcomed, no voice is silenced, and children come to realize their own self-worth through the unconditional acceptance of one another.”

I chose this quote because of the line “children come to realize their own self-worth through unconditional acceptance of one another.” This line really says it all. School is a time in a person’s life where they develop friendships and identities. They find out who they are, and who they are to other people. It is such a crucial time in a person’s development. Sometimes this part of someone’s life is not the best experience; they are bullied, left out, called names etc. Each student should have equal opportunity in the classroom no matter who they are, disabled or not.

Frst of all I want to say that i really enjoyed the conference .I was unsure how I would feel about it given the day and time we had to be there. but I actually really enjoyed it. My first workshop was a little boring but my second was very interesting and very helpful. the key speaker, Tricia Rose was amazingI loved the way she spoke. She made connections to johnson and carlson when she talked about the "gay computer" incident.
my second workshop was my favorite workshop. It consisted of three teachers from different schools talking about case studies that they did on their students for example one teacher talked about two students she had that had behavioral issues. She then decided to chart their progress when trying different techniques to help that stdent have a better class day and a better year all together. At the end of the study she realized that his grades and behavioral issues improved greatl. however the other student did not improve but stayed the same. The last teacher that presented talked about her special eduction classroom. her students were mild to server special education students. her story was very touching. she had pictures on her powerpoint that were so sweet I felt very connected to what she was saying because i saw pictures. her case study was trying to get regular ed students get involved with her studentsand hopefully form friendships. she would ask the regular ed's teachers if their students have free tme to come work with her students. They would come in about once a week and bake, play games, etc. You could tell that she was very proud of what she was doing but not only that but she loved what she did. I have to say that Iwas very inspired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji3R30PT1PQ&feature=related
talking about inclusion in the classroom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TYjYsouroY&feature=related
i thought that this was very interesting "to be fair we have to treat them different"

talking points # 8

1. "The teachers rarely explain why the work is being assigned, how it might connect to other assignments, or what the idea that lies behind the procedureor gives it coherence and perhaps meaning or significance."

This is wat she says happens happens in the working class school. I really do not understand why the working class schools have teachers that seem to be not doing there job the best they can, as if they are slacking.I do understand he issue with not having enough materials such as textbooks but I do not understand why the teachers should not give there students 100% so that they will learn something from the lesson they are teacher other than telling them they just need practice, and perhaps not realizing that they arre not understanding it because of how it was taught to them.

2. "Now draw a line from...at this point a girl said that she had a faster way to do it and the teacher said 'no, you dont, you dont even know what i am making yet. do it this way or its wrong'"

This to me does not seem right. if a student has an idea the teacher should explore it. This way you can have the students get involved more, and you are invited students to use their minds and exercise their ideas. But by setting the student down like that, the teacher just shows negativetly toward the situation and it make have an effect on that girl, making her not want to speak in fron tof the class again. also the other students see that the teacher is somewhat mean. instead she could have said something like... well lets try this way first, or sure lets see what you have.

3. "Work tasks do not usually request creativity. serious attention is rarely given in school work on how the children develope or express their own feelings and ideas, eitherlinguistically or in graphic form."

This somewhat bothers me I feel that creativity is very important in a young students education. I feel that it improves a child's all around learning. I feel that creativity should be involved in a student's day. And they should be able to express what they think and feel, kind of like the second quote I chose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Ntdym5zrM

This video I thought was very interesting because it dealt with the stereotypes of boy and girls in schools for example: "males are less likely to go to college. It discusses the biases that teacher have for the female and male students. then it goes into research about the brain. Here it says that research shows that boys are falling behind. According to this boys have lower reading and writing. I thought it was also very interesting when it said that boys and girls brains are set uop different!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlq8H8yBixI

This next video is very different. this video is about an elementary school in Green Bay that has same sex classrooms, so even though it is a coed school the classrooms are seperated. I have never heard of this technique and apparently it makes for better test scores. however I feel that this can not be good in the long run. at this age however boys and girls have "cooties". So I'm guessing that because they are seperated there is less arguments that would arrive from these type of things. "when your in a girl's class you can just be yourself and do anything."girl student from the video. Some parents have trouble with this way of teacher, i think i might as well. I not really sure how I feel about it. Yes they get to interact during lunch and possibly recess, but is that enough. What if a girl student is more comfortable around boys, not all girl students get along with girls,a nd same goes for boy students.

talking points # 6

1."we are no where near a post-racial america." Time wise
I think this quote is very important because I do believe that even though we have a black president does no mean that racism as magically disappeared. it is far from gone. While reading about the brown vs board the same misconception was made after the civil war, African Americans thought that now they could finally be equal becasue slavery had ended but look what resulted years later, white and blacks were not allowed to go to school together.

2."they view him(Obama)... as transcending race, as being different from the black and brown norm." Tim Wise
I think this quote is very important becasue it brings up this issue that you can only be a successful african american if you dress and act like Barack Obama. What Wise was saying was that it is important to realize that African Americans can be successful people and just as smart if not smarter that Obama without being just like him. He also talked about how it would be acceptable for a black president to be like Bush and he probaly not be elected. I thought that was very interesting.

3."to keep our eye on the prize so to speak and remember how much work still remained to be done after those events." Tim Wise
Here Wise is talking about how yes this is great that we have a black president...but to remeber after brown vs board how much still needed to be done, this issue of racism is not gone and it is important to realize that. There is so much more than can be done the problem of racism has not stopped with the election of Barack Obama.

Kahne & Westheimer

1."students would interact with those less fortunate than themselves and would experience the excitement and joy of learning while using the community as a classroom."

i feel that this quote is very important. i feel that working with your community will not only benefit you in the classroom, but it will also benefit those you are helping. learning about other things besides math and science, like things that people are effected by daily and showing students that they can help will get them excited for learning and help their community.

2. "we attempt to "apprehend the realityof the other" and then to "struggle (for progress) together". in so doing, we create opportunities for changing and understanding of the other and the context within which he or she lives."

this quote i feel is very important because it talks about how we can learn from each other within the community and understand their life styles. also i feel that it deals with being able to understand how people live each day and to avoid any judements that may have been percieved earlier.

3. "with the current interest in and allocation of resources to service learning comes a growing need to clarify the ideological perspectives that underlie service learning programs."

i dont understand why service learning projects must be clarified. most high schools have a requirement that they must do community serice hours of some sort to graduate. i feel that helping the community should never have to be justified. students dont always just have to learn about the four major subjects, but they should also learn about what happening around them and waht they can do to help.

i think this article is very important, however i must say i found it lengthy and a bit boring. i lost interest on the third page. but i do think it is important for students to get a all around eductation.